(no subject)

We've lost two of my favorite actors from when I was a kid. Peter Graves was cool before anyone ever used that word. Yeah, Steven Hill played the leader on Mission Impossible first (and probably was the better actor). But Peter Graves was cool, before MI ever came a long.

Then there was Fess Parker. The guys he played were all soft spoken and quick to act.

When Davy Crockett first appeared on Walt Disney Presents, the world of kids my age divided up very quickly between those with parents who'd buy their kids anything and those whose parents wouldn't. The fad item of the moment? Davy Crockett's coonskin cap. My mother was convinced the version for kids was made from filthy, unwashed rags, and absolutely would not consider buying me one. And it seemed like that was the opinion of about half the parents. Like all Disney merchandise the furry caps were everywhere in the stores and hundreds of thousands were sold. But later fads of the 1950's would be less controversial and reach kids of more age levels.

Getting back to Fess not only was Davy Crockett a frontier hero, but with his partner played by Buddy Ebsen, he was a hero of English teachers everywhere with the first educational TV in prime time in the US. Who could forget their grammar with our heroes reciting verb conjugations for the young uns on the show:

I'm a fixin' to
You're a fixin' to
He's a fixin' to
She's a fixin' to

I have to admit I was over my fascination with Fess Parker by the time the Daniel Boone show came around. But, I'm sure that generation of little kids remember him just as fondly.